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Tech feature - November 3, 2005

Campagnolo looks to the future

All the attention in road bike components this year has been grabbed by
SRAM, with the two established giants, Campagnolo and Shimano fielding tweaks
and additions to existing ranges in Campagnolo's case and a predictable - albeit
very welcome - mid-range ten-speed group in Shimano 105. But in the volatile
business of bike components, to stand still is to court death, and Campagnolo
has no plans to stand still. Campagnolo's Piero Da Rin told John Stevenson
where the Big C is going for the next couple of years.

First, the bad news. Everyone who is waiting for Campagnolo to blow its competition
out of the water with a production version of the Record electronic shifting
system that has been in development for the last four years or so is going to
have to be patient a while longer. According to Campagnolo's marketing manager
Piero Da Rin, that component group needs at least two more years of development
before it will be ready.

"At the moment it works perfectly," says Da Rin, "but it is untidy - cables
all over the bike, batteries stuck on the frame. A road bike needs to be beautiful!"

Of course, it's this dedication to aesthetics as well as function that has
always endeared Campagnolo to its fans, so while technoweenies will no doubt
be finding the long wait frustrating, at least we can be assured that when Record
Electric becomes available it will look good.

A six year gestation for a new component set is not the standard at Campagnolo;
the company is now developing parts for the 2008 product year, says dar Rin.
But Record Electric has thrown up some unique technical challenges - that have
sunk previous attempts at electronically-controlled shifting - and spun off
some useful new technologies that have appeared in other areas of Campagnolo's
range.

"We believe in product development," says Da Rin, "as it's a test field for
our products," with improvements in the electrical shifting system leading to
improvements in the existing mechanical system. "It's like Formula One," says
Da Rin, giving as an example the improvements in front derailleur shifting Campagnolo
has made in recent years.

Campagnolo found very early in the development of Record Electric that shoving
a chain from one chainring to another needed a lot of force. That in turn required
a powerful motor to make the shift and a big battery to supply the juice, all
of which meant extra weight. This problem in turn led to an effort to improve
chainring tooth shapes, chain shapes and front derailleur plates so that less
force would be required to move the chain.

This year, riders using Record Electric have finished on top of the podium,
most notably Nico Eeckhout in Dwars
door Vlaanderen back in March. "Everything worked 95 percent" in the early
season races, says Da Rin, and Campagnolo was able to further improve the system
as a result of feedback from its riders.

The Spring races in northern Europe are a, "great test field because of the
weather and the big, strong riders," who dominate those races, says Da Rin.
However, in the hardest test of the year, Paris-Roubaix, Record Electric equipped
bikes only went half the distance before being swapped out for machines with
mechanical transmissions.

Nevertheless, Da Rin says it's aesthetic considerations that are now holding
things back. "We are working on several ways to make Record Electric look good,
but it's too early to say what they are because they might not make production."
Cyclingnews suggests some obvious ideas, like hiding it in the frame, and you
can tell this sort of thing has occurred to Campagnolo and been discarded. Frame
manufacturers historically aren't keen on being told to build frames around
someone else's parts.

The near future

Record Electric, then, will be ready when it's ready. Rumours are already circulating
that Shimano's XTR mountain bike group will have lots of carbon and titanium
for 2007 and that will inevitably lead to a revamped, lighter Dura-Ace in 2008.
Da Rin says Campagnolo will be ready for the challenge.

"Compared to Shimano we use more titanium and carbon in our top line group
which lightens it. The Record rear derailleur, for example, is almost all carbon."
In fact, he feels it's not fair to compare Record to Dura-Ace; Chorus a better
benchmark. "The Chorus group is just 40g heavier than Dura-Ace."

"We are ready to face competition," says Da Rin. "We know SRAM is coming and
maybe FSA. Increasing competition is part of the world."

Next year will see the first salvo in Campagnolo's response to new competition
with "something very new. We are looking at [redeveloping] our oldest part,"
says Da Rin, before clamming up and refusing to drop Cyclingnews any more hints,
despite our pleading. Some guesses? Campagnolo's original big idea was the wheel
quick release, but it's hard to imagine getting very excited about a new QR
design (and anyway, Campagnolo's 2006 wheels feature the very tidy quick release
found on Fulcrum wheels).

How about a new bottom bracket design? The square taper is arguably the oldest
design in Campagnolo's stable and other manufacturers have taken advantage of
the weight savings offered by two-piece cranks with external bearings. This
is definitely an area where it would seem Campagnolo could use some innovation.
And that's enough speculation from us!

The wheel thing

One area where Campagnolo has innovated and taken on its competitors in the
last couple of years is wheels. That area has, "gone crazy," says Da Rin, adding
that it's, "the most difficult part to innovate."

When Cyclingnews points out that riders looking for reliability always seem
to pull out old-fashioned wheels with 32 spokes for Paris-Roubaix, Da Rin is
quick to respond, pointing out, "Magnus Backstedt won Paris-Roubaix on Neutron
wheels and was fourth in 2005."

At this point Felice Santaro, Campagnolo's Australian technical representative
and Da Rin's host for his visit to Australia, points out that he is seeing dealers
recommending Campagnolo wheels to riders of Shimano-equipped bikes, citing their
reliability. (To be fair to Shimano, we know dealers who swear by the durability
of Dura-Ace wheels.)

Campagnolo split its wheel effort in two a couple of years ago, introducing
Fulcrum wheels. Fulcrum is a wholly owned subsidiary of Campagnolo, but run
as a separate company, says Da Rin. "There is separate R&D but some common manufacturing,"
he explains.

That has allowed Fulcrum to experiment with substantial departures from traditional
wheel technology - Neutrons may be reliable enough for Paris-Roubaix, but with
their steel spokes they are in some ways quite traditional. For 2006 Fulcrum
features such as lightened rims and flattened aluminium spokes have crossed
over to Campagnolo.

Back in the dirt?

One area of bikes where Campagnolo has been absent for many years is the off-road
arena, but the company's recent triple chainset, trigger shifters and V-brakes
- intended for flat-bar road bikes - mean it's almost possible to build a Campagnolo-equipped
mountain bike again. But Campagnolo has no immediate plans to return to the
mountain bike arena.

Campagnolo might make MTB parts, "potentially, in the future, but we don't
have a clear plan," says Da Rin. Campagnolo's last attempt at mountain bike
components, back in the early to mid-90s, came at a bad time for the company.
"It was both too late and too early," he says. Campagnolo in the early 1990s
was floundering, and needed to focus on what it did best, road components. It
just didn't have the resources to take on Shimano in its strongest area.

But Campagnolo now is a much healthier company with a raft of the kind of materials
technologies that appeal to mountain bikers. So will off-road riders get a third
option in components too? "We'll see," says Da Rin.